


Also Meaningless

by Ramasi



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-01-23
Packaged: 2018-01-09 18:29:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1149362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ramasi/pseuds/Ramasi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What does it matter that she's here, that she's asking, if she doesn't mean it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Also Meaningless

**Author's Note:**

> Set during a not more clearly defined time before Regina gets the curse back from Maleficient. Regina/Rumple is only implied.

_Intent is everything._

He can hear the thought from the curl of her lips, the desperate grip on his hand. Muted darkness is around them, it's her castle, Snow's castle, the moon is half-full outside and shining in, its light distributed oddly by the mirrors that line the walls, for his sake perhaps, a reminder of her power.

She's beautiful, all in black robes, royal, dressed to impress and not to seduce, her eyes painted so dark, as if to hide from his sight the girl he can still see there. But her eyes are the same, and so is her hand in his, small and soft, used to steering horses from early childhood, strong enough to crush his spinner's fingers in its grip. His own hold is flask.

_Intent is everything._

It's in those eyes most of all, the hatred, the anger, the litany of thoughts as clear as prophesy: for him she has nothing but hate and contempt, she will, she has surpassed him, she will destroy him, throw him away at convenience, forget him, all that poison is in her eyes, full of sincerity, and she doesn't let go, because what does it matter that she's here, that she's asking, if she doesn't mean it?

He smiles at her with no more malice than she expects. He won't tell her, not now. She's trying, she threw his curse away, yet here she is, and she will fail, he'll see to that, and she will be back: she thinks, the threads that bind her are useful still, she thinks, magic is willpower, is feeling, and so intent is everything, what is the reality of her failures against that?

Of course – and it's only at the questioning, mocking tilt of her head that he realises that his grip has tightened, frantic, and he has to bow and let go – she cannot possibly know. What she knows is that he has thrown love and hope away, that he had one chance and wasted it for fear and pride, that he has nothing but the cold empty shell of power and superiority. He will not allow her to learn the truth; love is no weakness, love is the greatest power, the strongest magic; but it will be utilised. _He_ knows. Regina is beneath revenge, yet: he will see her destroy all she has left for illusions, for him. He can see a hint of Snow White's daughter in the future, and he smiles at her, through space and time, complicit.


End file.
